Transcoding is used in many video applications. For example, a service provider may need to provide different bitstreams at different bit rates for the purpose of adapting transmission of a video program to time-varying bandwidths in an underlying network transport. The service provider could start from a mezzanine package (e.g., a compressed version adapted from an uncompressed master version, etc.) of the video program and use the mezzanine package to generate different bitstreams to be transmitted at different bit rates.
However, the mezzanine package of a video program typically requires a high bit rate (e.g., 150˜200 Mbps, etc.) to transfer between different nodes in a (e.g., internet-based, cloud-based, etc.) distributed computing environment, and a large storage space to store at a recipient node.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, issues identified with respect to one or more approaches should not assume to have been recognized in any prior art on the basis of this section, unless otherwise indicated.